Adaptation of villagers to climate changes and its relationship with social factors(Case study: Villagers of Babolsar city-Mazandaran province)

The main purpose of this study was to assess the level of adaptation of villagers to climate change and its relationship with social factors. In the process of adaptation to climate change, farmers can be important decision makers. Therefore, this study has focused on the influence of social factors on rural support policy. Population was 2877 people from the villagers that using Cochran's formula and multi-stage cluster sampling, 224 people were selected as the statistical sample. Research data gathering tool was a questionnaire and questions the reliability rate of over 60 percent. Also, the formal validity of the questionnaire has been confirmed by agricultural science specialists of agriculture scinces at University of Agriculture Sciences and specialists of social scinces at Mazandaran University. The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that there are positive and weak correlation between the area of agricultural land (0.20), knowledge of information resources (0.18), institutional trust (0.17), normative pressure of agricultural experts and local people (0.16) with the adaptation with climate changes. While the normative pressure of the local council, age and income were not correlated with the adaptation of the villagers to the consequences of climate change due to a significant level (more than 0.05). In line with the research findings, improving farmers' knowledge and skills about climate changes and familiarizing them with adaptation strategies and economic, social and cultural assessments of the consequences of climate changes for rural communities can improve their adaptation to the harmful effects of climate changes.